The general mission of the committee is to assess the current state of research in the area of television and social behavior, and stimulate new research that appears needed and promising in the light of that assessment. The committee has set the following three-year agenda: (1) Examine and clarify the major theoretical models underlying research on the long- and short-term effects of television on children; (2) Examine methodological issues involved in this research, including the linkage between laboratory and field research, the study of long-term effects, and the design of interpretable cross-national comparisons; (3) Plan and stimulate needed research on the short- and long-term effects of televised violence on children; (4) Conceptualize and give scientific overview to the research required for the development of a multidimensional measure of violence in television programming; (5) Plan and stimulate needed research on socially and behaviorally important effects of television viewing on children, beyond the hypothesized linkage of TV violence and aggression; (6) Explore the feasibility of stimulating research on the institutional and broad social cortex in which the content and form of television programming are determined. During its second year, the committee has met with consultants and discussed with them and amongst itself the problems and issues associated with the development of a profile of televised violence. A report containing the committee's recommendations was submitted to NIMH. In addition, the committee discussed several topics for research planning conferences and has starting organizing fall conferences on program decision-making in television and on the entertainment role of television.